Thank you, gentlemen, for coming to meet with us this evening. I have briefly glanced at the document which I believe comes from the department. I am not sure exactly where it came from.
One of this committee's objectives is to get real answers and clear information. The words “Canada directly supports” appear throughout the document. The figures in the document are mind-boggling. For example, under “Education”, it states that “close to 6 million children (one third of them girls) are enrolled in school in 2007-2008”. A little lower down one reads that 9,000 teachers were trained.
What exactly is Canada doing and what results have been achieved? This question can be answered with simple figures or simple objectives—in some cases, it is not possible to provide figures—so that we can provide this information to the people in our ridings.
I am sorry to say that a brochure like this is of no use to me whatsoever. The information is lost in I don't know what context. I don't know who is involved and I am unable to say what Canada is doing. I know that one of the objectives was to better inform the public as to exactly which projects Canada was responsible for, the role our country is playing, the objectives and the results.
Last week, Mr. Maloney told the committee that 50 schools would soon be built. I asked him what we had built to date. I am still waiting for an answer. In order to understand what it means to build 50 schools in Afghanistan, I need to know our capacity. If we are building 50 schools in I don't know how much time, in addition to what we have already... In short, we are talking about simple things like that. However, that is not what I see in this document. Listening to you, I don't get the feeling either that we will get this information. This is all starting to sound rather obscure to me. I don't mean to undermine your presentation, but you are saying things that don't appeal to our intelligence or our ability to understand.
I don't know if I am the one who has misguided expectations, but is it possible to get specific figures or clear information on what is happening there?